CAST Expands Security IP Portfolio with High Performance SM4 Cipher Core

Verified, compact, and easy-to-integrate SM4 hardware engine meets Chinese-market requirements and global security standards

Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey — September 30, 2025  — Semiconductor intellectual property (IP) provider CAST today announced the availability of a new SM4 Cipher IP Core, delivering compact, high-performance hardware implementations of the SM4 symmetric block cipher for both ASIC and FPGA designs.

SM4 is the Chinese national standard block cipher (GB/T 7-2016) and has also been adopted internationally as ISO/IEC 18033-3/Amd.1:2021. It is required in many Chinese-market security applications, including WAPI wireless networking, trusted computing, secure communications, payment systems, and data storage.

The new SM4 Cipher Engine IP Core gives system designers a production-ready solution that offers:

• Standards-compliant security — Ensures global compatibility and Chinese-market compliance by implementing the SM4 algorithm per GB/T 32907-2016 and ISO/IEC 18033-3/Amd.1:2021.
• Compact yet high-speed performance — Provides multi-gigabit throughput (up to 8 Gbps in ASICs or 2.6 Gbps in FPGAs) with minimal silicon footprint (sub-10k gates in ASICs, under 1,000 LUTs/ALMs in FPGAs).
• Flexible versions and modes — Satisfies different performance requirements with fast and high-throughput versions and broad, selectable cipher modes including ECB, CBC, CFB, OFB, CTR, GCM, CCM, and XTS.
• Easy integration — Saves SoC and FPGA subsystem integration time through a simplified handshake interface plus available AMBA® AXI4-Stream and DMA bridges.
• Proven IP quality — Industrial-level IP core—fully synchronous, LINT-clean, scan-ready, and rigorously verified—with deliverables that include Verilog/VHDL source code or FPGA netlists, HDL testbenches, C-models, and synthesis scripts.

“CAST has long been a trusted supplier of proven, high-quality IP cores for mission-critical applications in China and worldwide. With this new SM4 core, our customers now have one of the best-available turnkey solutions for meeting the stringent requirements of Chinese and global security standards without compromising performance or design efficiency.” 

— George Athanasiou, security IP product manager for CAST

Sourced from Ocean Logic, the SM4 Cipher Engine IP Core expands CAST’s growing portfolio of cryptography and security solutions. This includes popular cryptography primitives such as AES, SHA, SNOW-V, ASCON, and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) cores, plus root of trust and other SoC-level security solutions. These offerings give designers a broad set of security building blocks for automotive, IoT, networking, payment, and defense applications.

The CAST SM4 Cipher Engine IP Core is available now for ASICs and FPGAs. For product briefs, datasheets, or evaluation information, please visit the SM4 product page or contact info@cast-inc.com.